WEEX
Encyclopedia
WEEX is a sports radio station
in Easton, Pennsylvania
branded as "ESPN Radio
1230 and 1320" and is owned by Nassau Broadcasting. Their programming is simulcast on co-owned WTKZ (1320 AM), licensed to nearby Allentown, Pennsylvania
.
In the early 1970s, WEEX-FM's simulcast with the AM was broken off under Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) changes which forbid full-time AM/FM simulcasts. The station switched to Beautiful Music
under the WQQQ call-letters. The calls were chosen because the lower-case Q closely resembled the number 9, hence the station's frequency 99.9. The station offered an instrumental-based easy listening format, playing instrumental cover versions of pop songs. A few times per hour a soft vocalist was mixed in. WEEX evolved into more of an adult top 40 format and then more of an oldies format focusing on music from the late 1960s mixed in with a few pre-64 oldies an hour along with some 70's hits and current product.
By 1980, WEEX moved into more of an adult contemporary format. In late 1982, longtime station owner Easton Publishing acquired The Globe Times, a newspaper in nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. To satisfy media ownership rules, both WEEX and WQQQ were sold off to Wilks-Schwartz Broadcasting.
On April 4, 1983, WEEX swapped formats with its FM sister station, WQQQ. WEEX's airstaff and music library was moved to 99.9 FM. The former WEEX format was modified on FM into Mainstream CHR
/Top 40. The station kept the WQQQ call letters but became known as "Q 100". Initially, the station focused on current pop music, but also played a moderate amount of 60s and 70s oldies until about 1985. WQQQ's Easy Listening format was moved to WEEX but would be more vocally-oriented than on FM. By 1987, WEEX evolved into more of an Adult Standards easy listening format.
In 1989, Roth Broadcasting acquired WQQQ and WEEX from Wilks-Schwartz. That September, WEEX switched formats to Satellite Oldies. WQQQ became a Rhythmic CHR as WHXT. On August 23, 1991, WHXT dropped its CHR format for Oldies. The format played the Hits of the 1950s, 1960s, and a few from the very early 1970s. The call letters became WODE and the station became known as "Oldies 99" under programing consultant Pete Salant. WEEX then returned to an Adult Standards format.
The stations were sold to Patterson Broadcasting in the mid 1990s. In 1997, Capstar would buy WODE and WEEX but would spin the stations off to Clear Channel Communications
. They had to do this because the Lehigh Valley has only five FM stations and no one company can own more than half. As a result, a company can only have 2 FM stations in the market. Capstar was already buying WZZO
and WAEB-FM. Under Clear Channel ownership, WODE continued its oldies format. WEEX switched to a Sports format affiliated with ESPN Radio. Nassau Broadcasting would eventually buy WEEX and WODE in 1991. WEEX remained an ESPN Radio affiliate and WODE switched from Oldies to Classic Hits with a rock base.
and some softer songs by rock and roll artists. This format was known as MOR. Throughout the 1960s, they had a top-40 format, combined with relatively apolitical call-in shows. By 1970, the station evolved to more of an adult contemporary format. In 1972, WKAP decided to compete with the two Top 40 stations in the Lehigh Valley, WAEB 790, which was very current music based, and WEEX 1230, which played more oldies
music, based as an Adult Top 40 station. WKAP's Top 40 format emulated West Coast giant KCBQ
in San Diego. Some of the original WKAP DJs were Kevin Fennessy, Walt Brown, Shotgun Steve Kelly, Mark Stewart , Kris Bailey, Billy Sheridan and J. Robert Taylor. The station was known as WKAP Radio 13 (rounded off to the nearest hundredth). The station was sold to Gulf Broadcasting in the late 1970s.
In Sept of 1978, a local club DJ by the name of Mike Jacobs came up with an idea to broadcast live an entire evening of music commercial-free-at a local niteclub. At the time the station was an independent local AM station. The PD, Chris Bailey, Station Mgr Jerry Duckett and the staff were very interested in the project that could help them in competition with their cross-town nemesis WAEB 790AM and add a possible ratings boost to the TOP40 outlet.
The facility to be used was "The Castle Garden Ballroom" located in Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
in Allentown. The parks owners, Robert Plarr and Robert Ott were also on board for this project. After extensive renovations, Castle Garden was opened for business in the late fall of 78. Crowds averaged about 300-450 per night and the owners and mgmt were looking for a spark to drive this to bigger and better crowds. The ballroom had a capacity of approx 2000 people and 300-450 looked pretty thin at the time.
's "Shit, Goddamn, Get Off Your Ass & Jam," followed by Bell & James' "Livin It Up". This resulted in an FCC Warning to the station and made the local news. The first night the crowd was 600 people. After the news coverage and word of mouth, Studio 13 averaged 2,000 people per night and could have done more had there not been a Fire Marshall's limit on the amount of people.
WKAP realized a ratings jump from 3.8 to 23.4, Saturday evenings from 9:00PM to 12 Midnight in a 1 month period and maintained this throughout the summer till the shows conclusion on Labor Day of 1979 at the park's request.
The management of Castle Garden also invested in and shot a 1-hour video pilot entitled "Castle Garden" that it attempted unsuccessfully to syndicate.
The one bright spot was in the fall of 1979 in New York City
at the Annual Billboard Disco Forum & Convention. Mike Jacobs received an honorable mention as "DJ of the Year" for the Philadelphia region and was invited to spin at the Roseland Ballroom
during the convention. WKAP also fared well at this convention being nominated for "Most Innovative Breakout Radio Show" for the year 1979, but lost out to WCAU
in Philadelphia.
Mike Jacobs continued in radio and clubs in the area working at Sunny 1100 WGPA
and 96 WLEV-FM until 1997 and then retired. Some of the other WKAP Air-Personalities moved on to other outlets, such as Bill Sheridan to WKRZ
in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and 99 "The Hawk" in Easton, Pennsylvania
and Kris Bailey to AM 790 WAEB
.
By 1980, WKAP evolved into more of an adult contemporary music format. At the end of the Summer 1982, WKAP dropped the adult contemporary format for an adult standards format, which was known as "Music Of Your Life". The station featured easy listening vocalists from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as big band music from the 1930s and 1940s. The station also played a limited amount of non-rock songs from the 1970s.
The station stayed with this format through the 1980s. In 1984, Gulf Broadcasting sold WKAP to Holt Broadcasting, which at the time also owned WZZO
. WKAP stayed with its standards music format, but added a bit more baby boomer pop (songs by artists like Elvis Presley
and The Beatles
). In 1990, though, WKAP switched to a satellite-delivered oldies music format, playing mostly songs from 1964-1969 with some 1955-64 songs, with some 1970-73 songs mixed in. They continued with this format until 1992, at which time they returned to adult standards' Westwood One's AM-only format. This featured non-rock music as well as some soft rock music of the 1950s and 1960s, along with a small amount of 1940s hits and some soft hits form the 1970ss. It was more of an easy listening based format than "Music Of Your Life". Their decision to abandon oldies music in 1992 was due to 99.9 FM WODE's adopting the format in late 1991.
In 1992, Holt Broadcasting also bought 1470 WXKW, which remained a country music station for another year. In 1993, the station switched to a satellite oldies format when 1320 flipped back to standards. Then, in 1996, Holt Broadcasting sold all of their stations except for AM 1320. They kept 1320 and made it a sports station with the WTKZ Calls. In 2001, WTKZ, along with WEEX was sold to Nassau Broadcasting Partners
and today they simulcast ESPN Radio programming.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in Easton, Pennsylvania
Easton, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,800 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Northampton County....
branded as "ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
1230 and 1320" and is owned by Nassau Broadcasting. Their programming is simulcast on co-owned WTKZ (1320 AM), licensed to nearby Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...
.
1230 WEEX History
AM 1230 WEEX signed on in May 1956 with a popular music format and simulcast their FM station. They were owned locally by Easton Publishing Company, who also owned the Easton Express newspaper. WEEX and WEEX-FM evolved into a Top 40 music format in the early 1960s. WEEX 1230 did not have a lot of power so they used their FM to simulcast much of their programming to areas where the AM could not be heard.In the early 1970s, WEEX-FM's simulcast with the AM was broken off under Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) changes which forbid full-time AM/FM simulcasts. The station switched to Beautiful Music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
under the WQQQ call-letters. The calls were chosen because the lower-case Q closely resembled the number 9, hence the station's frequency 99.9. The station offered an instrumental-based easy listening format, playing instrumental cover versions of pop songs. A few times per hour a soft vocalist was mixed in. WEEX evolved into more of an adult top 40 format and then more of an oldies format focusing on music from the late 1960s mixed in with a few pre-64 oldies an hour along with some 70's hits and current product.
By 1980, WEEX moved into more of an adult contemporary format. In late 1982, longtime station owner Easton Publishing acquired The Globe Times, a newspaper in nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. To satisfy media ownership rules, both WEEX and WQQQ were sold off to Wilks-Schwartz Broadcasting.
On April 4, 1983, WEEX swapped formats with its FM sister station, WQQQ. WEEX's airstaff and music library was moved to 99.9 FM. The former WEEX format was modified on FM into Mainstream CHR
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
/Top 40. The station kept the WQQQ call letters but became known as "Q 100". Initially, the station focused on current pop music, but also played a moderate amount of 60s and 70s oldies until about 1985. WQQQ's Easy Listening format was moved to WEEX but would be more vocally-oriented than on FM. By 1987, WEEX evolved into more of an Adult Standards easy listening format.
In 1989, Roth Broadcasting acquired WQQQ and WEEX from Wilks-Schwartz. That September, WEEX switched formats to Satellite Oldies. WQQQ became a Rhythmic CHR as WHXT. On August 23, 1991, WHXT dropped its CHR format for Oldies. The format played the Hits of the 1950s, 1960s, and a few from the very early 1970s. The call letters became WODE and the station became known as "Oldies 99" under programing consultant Pete Salant. WEEX then returned to an Adult Standards format.
The stations were sold to Patterson Broadcasting in the mid 1990s. In 1997, Capstar would buy WODE and WEEX but would spin the stations off to Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
. They had to do this because the Lehigh Valley has only five FM stations and no one company can own more than half. As a result, a company can only have 2 FM stations in the market. Capstar was already buying WZZO
WZZO
WZZO, popularly known as "95.1 WZZO", is a popular rock radio station located in Whitehall Township, outside of Allentown, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States.WZZO broadcasts locally at 95.1 MHz FM...
and WAEB-FM. Under Clear Channel ownership, WODE continued its oldies format. WEEX switched to a Sports format affiliated with ESPN Radio. Nassau Broadcasting would eventually buy WEEX and WODE in 1991. WEEX remained an ESPN Radio affiliate and WODE switched from Oldies to Classic Hits with a rock base.
1320 history
AM 1320 began operation as WKAP in 1948. The station employed a popular music format for many years. They were owned by Rahall Communications. In the 1950s, they opted to play mostly non rock musicRock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and some softer songs by rock and roll artists. This format was known as MOR. Throughout the 1960s, they had a top-40 format, combined with relatively apolitical call-in shows. By 1970, the station evolved to more of an adult contemporary format. In 1972, WKAP decided to compete with the two Top 40 stations in the Lehigh Valley, WAEB 790, which was very current music based, and WEEX 1230, which played more oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
music, based as an Adult Top 40 station. WKAP's Top 40 format emulated West Coast giant KCBQ
KCBQ
KCBQ is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format and is owned by Salem Communications. The station offers Conservative talk programming such as Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager and Michael Medved...
in San Diego. Some of the original WKAP DJs were Kevin Fennessy, Walt Brown, Shotgun Steve Kelly, Mark Stewart , Kris Bailey, Billy Sheridan and J. Robert Taylor. The station was known as WKAP Radio 13 (rounded off to the nearest hundredth). The station was sold to Gulf Broadcasting in the late 1970s.
In Sept of 1978, a local club DJ by the name of Mike Jacobs came up with an idea to broadcast live an entire evening of music commercial-free-at a local niteclub. At the time the station was an independent local AM station. The PD, Chris Bailey, Station Mgr Jerry Duckett and the staff were very interested in the project that could help them in competition with their cross-town nemesis WAEB 790AM and add a possible ratings boost to the TOP40 outlet.
The facility to be used was "The Castle Garden Ballroom" located in Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom is an American amusement and water park located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The park features nine roller coasters, other adult and children's rides, and a waterpark, Wildwater Kingdom....
in Allentown. The parks owners, Robert Plarr and Robert Ott were also on board for this project. After extensive renovations, Castle Garden was opened for business in the late fall of 78. Crowds averaged about 300-450 per night and the owners and mgmt were looking for a spark to drive this to bigger and better crowds. The ballroom had a capacity of approx 2000 people and 300-450 looked pretty thin at the time.
FCC warning
The idea was refined and in Jan 1979, Studio 13 debuted. It was broadcast Saturday's from 9:00 PM – 2:00 AM with DJ Mike Jacobs as the DJ/Host/MC. Bill Sheridan (now employed by Nassau Broadcasting) and Shotgun Steve Kelly were the board techs. Sponsorship for the show was secured and Pepsi-Cola came on board as the primary sponsor. Commercials were inserted by Bill & Steve by having Mike Jacobs backtime the breaks in the music and then the station inserting voice-only commercials over the breaks in the music while the music played the instrumental break without interruption. The show opened with the ParliamentParliament (band)
Parliament was a funk band most prominent during the 1970s. It and its sister act Funkadelic, both led by George Clinton, began the funk music culture of that decade.-History:...
's "Shit, Goddamn, Get Off Your Ass & Jam," followed by Bell & James' "Livin It Up". This resulted in an FCC Warning to the station and made the local news. The first night the crowd was 600 people. After the news coverage and word of mouth, Studio 13 averaged 2,000 people per night and could have done more had there not been a Fire Marshall's limit on the amount of people.
WKAP realized a ratings jump from 3.8 to 23.4, Saturday evenings from 9:00PM to 12 Midnight in a 1 month period and maintained this throughout the summer till the shows conclusion on Labor Day of 1979 at the park's request.
The management of Castle Garden also invested in and shot a 1-hour video pilot entitled "Castle Garden" that it attempted unsuccessfully to syndicate.
The one bright spot was in the fall of 1979 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at the Annual Billboard Disco Forum & Convention. Mike Jacobs received an honorable mention as "DJ of the Year" for the Philadelphia region and was invited to spin at the Roseland Ballroom
Roseland Ballroom
The Roseland Ballroom is a multi-purpose hall, in a converted ice skating rink, with a colorful ballroom dancing pedigree, in New York City's theatre district, on West 52nd Street....
during the convention. WKAP also fared well at this convention being nominated for "Most Innovative Breakout Radio Show" for the year 1979, but lost out to WCAU
WCAU
WCAU, channel 10, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WCAU has its studios on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in the...
in Philadelphia.
Mike Jacobs continued in radio and clubs in the area working at Sunny 1100 WGPA
WGPA
WGPA is a Class D daytimer radio station in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. It is currently owned by a local polka musician, Jolly Joe Timmer, and plays a mixture of local and syndicated talk radio programs, oldies, and polka music.- History :...
and 96 WLEV-FM until 1997 and then retired. Some of the other WKAP Air-Personalities moved on to other outlets, such as Bill Sheridan to WKRZ
WKRZ
WKRZ, "98.5 KRZ", is a radio station licensed to Freeland, Pennsylvania serving the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton radio market at 98.5 MHz FM. The station radio format is Top 40 which it has broadcast in the market since 1980. The station has always used some branding of "KRZ", a shortened form...
in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and 99 "The Hawk" in Easton, Pennsylvania
Easton, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,800 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Northampton County....
and Kris Bailey to AM 790 WAEB
WAEB (AM)
WAEB is a news, talk and sports radio station in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States. WAEB broadcasts at 790 kHz AM.The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications.-History:...
.
By 1980, WKAP evolved into more of an adult contemporary music format. At the end of the Summer 1982, WKAP dropped the adult contemporary format for an adult standards format, which was known as "Music Of Your Life". The station featured easy listening vocalists from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as big band music from the 1930s and 1940s. The station also played a limited amount of non-rock songs from the 1970s.
The station stayed with this format through the 1980s. In 1984, Gulf Broadcasting sold WKAP to Holt Broadcasting, which at the time also owned WZZO
WZZO
WZZO, popularly known as "95.1 WZZO", is a popular rock radio station located in Whitehall Township, outside of Allentown, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States.WZZO broadcasts locally at 95.1 MHz FM...
. WKAP stayed with its standards music format, but added a bit more baby boomer pop (songs by artists like Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
). In 1990, though, WKAP switched to a satellite-delivered oldies music format, playing mostly songs from 1964-1969 with some 1955-64 songs, with some 1970-73 songs mixed in. They continued with this format until 1992, at which time they returned to adult standards' Westwood One's AM-only format. This featured non-rock music as well as some soft rock music of the 1950s and 1960s, along with a small amount of 1940s hits and some soft hits form the 1970ss. It was more of an easy listening based format than "Music Of Your Life". Their decision to abandon oldies music in 1992 was due to 99.9 FM WODE's adopting the format in late 1991.
In 1992, Holt Broadcasting also bought 1470 WXKW, which remained a country music station for another year. In 1993, the station switched to a satellite oldies format when 1320 flipped back to standards. Then, in 1996, Holt Broadcasting sold all of their stations except for AM 1320. They kept 1320 and made it a sports station with the WTKZ Calls. In 2001, WTKZ, along with WEEX was sold to Nassau Broadcasting Partners
Nassau Broadcasting Partners
Nassau Broadcasting Partners LP is a company based in Princeton, New Jersey that owns radio stations in New England and the Mid-Atlantic United States. Nassau's stations, which include both AM and FM frequencies, are located in Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey,...
and today they simulcast ESPN Radio programming.